WAR – Page 5 – REVIEWS AND VIEWS OF LIFE

POLAND, THE BALTICS, & FINLAND

Our tour of the Baltic countries reveals evidence of Stalin’s brutality and the fear it created in the Baltic countries between 1945 and 1990-91. The same fate may be in store for Ukraine if Putin’s invasion succeeds.

Travel

Written by Chet Yarbrough

It’s been a while since our last trip out of America because of Covid. Poland, the Baltics, and Finland were my first choice because of their troubled history with Russia. The depth and breadth of these five countries’ history is a reminder of what is at stake with the invasion of Ukraine.

In traveling to Poland, the Baltics, and Finland, one’s understanding of political suppression becomes crystal clear. In contrast to the Baltics and Finland, Poland is the most often invaded of the five countries. The Mongol empire invades Poland in the 13th century, the Swedish Monarchy in the 17th, Russia, Prussia, and Austria partition Poland in the 18th, and in two world wars Russia and Germany vie for Poland’s land in the 20th. It is little wonder that Poland chooses to be a haven for Ukrainians when Russia invades Ukraine in the 21st century. Poland understands the hardship of invasion and suppression by a foreign power.

Poland’s sovereignty has been challenged by many invasions, beginning with the Mongol empire in the 13th century.

Genghis Khan (1162-1227.)

Traveling across Poland makes one understand why it has been invaded so many times. Poland’s lush countryside is a reminder of Ukraine’s agricultural reputation as the breadbasket of Europe.

To invaders, the wealth of Ukraine is like the wealth of Poland. Poland’s elaborate salt mine at Wieliczka was established in the 13th century. It played a crucial role in Poland’s economy when salt was referred to as “white gold”. Adding to Poland’s agricultural value is its industrial growth and its obvious economic prosperity; not to mention its strategic location as pathway to East and West European countries.

Beyond its wealth, Poland’s culture birthed the great composer, Frederic Chopin and renowned Pope, John Paul II.

The atrocity of the Holocaust is made real and unforgettable to visitors of the Auschwitz’ death camp in Poland. One shutters with a view of work camps, gas chambers, shoes and clothes of over a million people gassed by the Germans at Auschwitz. Upon liberation of Auschwitz, the German commander is hung from the U-shaped posts erected at the camp. How could this mass murder have happened? Tragically, mass murder is happening today.

Man’s inhumanity to man is evidenced in Ukraine, Myanmar, Yemen, Ethiopia, Israel, and Gaza. No country in the world that wages war, either defensively or offensively, is without innocent blood on their hands.

After this brief exposure to Poland, we fly to Lithuania. Here we find the atrocity of Stalin’s Russia as the tyrant of the Baltics after WWII. One’s ignorance of the history of Russia’s tyrannical rule is concretely revealed by a woman who is a survivor of Stalin’s takeover of the Baltics in 1945. A version of her story is told in “Between Shades of Gray” which was recommended by our guide on this trip.

The subject of “Between Shades of Gray” is a young girl and her brother’s survival during Stalin’s invasion of the Baltics. Much of what is written in Ruta Sepetys’ book is a reflection of what this spry octogenarian survivor explains happened to her and her family in 1945. Her name is Lina Vilkas.

Ms. Vilkas explains this is a replica of the rail car used to transport Lithuanians to work camps in Siberia.

One hole in the floor of a similar box car is a toilet for its overcrowded Lithuanian’ prisoners.

The Baltics were ruled by Russia until the early 1990s. Lithuanian independence is declared in 1990: Estonia and Latvia independence in 1991. After touring Lithuania, the cruelty of imprisonment, torture, and murder of Baltic residents is revealed in a tour of jail torture cells, and work farms. The tour evidence is reinforced by vituperative comments by home-hosted’ survivors of Russia’s 45-year dictatorial rule. The fear of reprisal and murder kept most Lithuanians in line. The hate and distrust of Russians seems palpable in the Baltics. Even Gorbachev is viewed by our guide as a mere functionary, not liberator of the Baltics. Forgetting may come with time, but forgiveness seems unlikely.

These pictures are of one of the Russian prisons in which Lithuanian citizens were held. The lower left shows a rubber floored room in which prisoners who were losing their mind were detained. The chamber to its right is a killing chamber where prisoners received a bullet to the back of the head. The bucket above these two pictures is a toilet for a cell, only emptied after smells must have permeated the hallways. Constant surveillance, torture, and demonstrated murders kept Baltic prisoners in line and the general public in fear.

To lighten our tour’s mood, these distressful reminders of Russian torture and murder, a brief trip is taken to a folklore and witches’ park in Neringa, Lithuania.

The most remarkable thing about travelling through the Baltics while listening to guides and economy lecturers is how industrially successful the Baltics have been since their liberation in the 1990s. Taxes are represented as more burdensome than in America, but residents appear benefitted from that tax burden when one sees how prosperous the Baltics appear to short-term visitors. Few homeless people are seen in the city. The cobble stone streets are constantly being repaired; new development is seen everywhere; luxury goods are seen in stores throughout the city.

The fear felt when Russia ruled the Baltics seems gone. Fear seems replaced by optimism for the Baltic’s future as members of the European Union. However, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine represents an ever-present concern to the Baltics new way of life. One wonders if that threat might lead to a military response from the Baltics like that of North Korea’s alleged troop deployment in Russia’s war in Ukraine. That seems doubtful but no one away from armed and deadly conflict can know.

Taking a bus to Neringa, Lithuanian, our guide takes us to a beach on the Baltic Sea. Here, we search for amber, a fossilized tree resin that ranges in color from yellow, to brown, green, blue, or black. Amber is a jeweler and hobbyist collectors dream, found primarily around the Baltic Sea. Few tourists leave the Baltics without a piece of amber to remind them of the trip.

Baltic Sea amber search.

Next, we head to Rukundziai, Lithuania to visit an abandoned and preserved missile base. Later we visit the countryside: a tourist attraction called the “Hill of Crosses”, a cultural heritage site that honors friends and family that have died. Thousands of crosses have been placed to commemorate those who have passed. The jumble of crosses is immense.

We are on our way to Riga, the capital of Latvia. Here, we visit a massive public market held in five former blimp hangars, reassembled in the heart of Latvia. Every spice and consumer product one can think of seems on display. Flowers are everywhere. Like Lithuania, Riga is a modern city with a well-known University. We spend part of the day in the city but head to the country for a visit to a goat farm. Like Poland and Lithuania, Latvia impresses travelers with its industry, farming, and economic growth.

Our final stop in the Baltics is Tallinn, Estonia which will be our port of debarkation to Finland. We visit Peter the Great’s summer home, a massive property which has become a national Russian and West European’ art museum. The Palace was not completed before the King died but its grounds are a sight to behold. Though Peter the Great was a 17th century Russian Czar, he was an enlightened monarch who had interests in science, technology and natural science. From the perspective of Estonian citizens, he brought interest in improving general education for the young.

We depart Estonia by ferry. Our ship is crowded with tourist buses, transport vehicles and citizens from all over the world. The two-hour crossing is a pleasure, accompanied with food, refreshments, and spectacular Baltic Sea views.

What one recognizes on this trip is the great concern the three Baltic countries have of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

We take a ten-story ferry across the Baltics to visit Finland.

Helsinki is a modern 21st century city, Finland’s capitol. We visit a state-of-the-art library that serves the public with everything from sound studios to AI model makers to classes to private reading/discussion rooms. Finland’s reputation as the happiest country in the world starts with a state-of-the art education system. On a field trip, our 16-person group visits a state subsidized farm in the country. It is a large farm with a short growing season that is supplemented by horse and farm animal stabling during the winter. It is surprisingly managed by a young couple, one of which is a descendant of the original owners. Management seems somewhat lay-back by American farming standards. It appears the farm could not exist without Finland’s government subsidy. The young couple seem underqualified farmers–more like hosts to a culture that would not survive without government help.

As is well known, Finland has a long border with Russia. In defense of their country, the Finns allied themselves with the Nazis during WWII. They are reported to have protected Finnish Jews from the Nazis, but fear of Russian encroachment was judged to require a devil’s bargain during WWII. In a previous trip to Finland, a guide explains a tenuous relationship with Russians that allows easy travel between countries because of their long border with Russia. The Finns are respectful but undoubtedly with watchful eyes. Finland refuses to be intimidated by Russia. By the same token, Russia appears disinclined to interfere with Finnish governance.

Many citizens feel they could be the next target of aggression by Russian oligarchs being led by today’s reincarnation of a Stalin in Vladimer Putin clothes.

The story of Holodomor and today’s Ukraine invasion show the depth of Russian government venality. Our tour of the Baltic countries reveals evidence of Stalin’s brutality and the fear it created in the Baltic countries between 1945 and 1990-91. The same fate may be in store for Ukraine if Putin’s invasion succeeds.

TO BE FREE

The neglect and brutal treatment of Lithuanian citizens by Russia during WWII is graphically depicted in “Between Shades of Gray”.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Between Shades of Gray

By: Ruta Sepetys

Narrated By: Emily Klein

Ruta Sepetys (Author, Lithuanian American writer of fiction, daughter of a Lithuanian refugee.)

This is a novel that many Americans will choose not to read. It is so relentlessly brutal that one is inclined to stop listening to, or reading, the novel. Many Americans take freedom for granted. Sepetys’ story reveals how ignorant the generational free are about what it is like to exist in a nation ruled by an unrestricted authoritarian leader. Sepetys recreates a story from a young girl’s notes and drawings of a Lithuania family’s loss of freedom during Stalin’s authoritarian rule.

The weight of “…Shades of Gray” makes one’s heart go out to the many Ukrainians losing their freedom and lives at Vladimir Putin’s monomaniacal direction.

Sepetys makes one see and understand how fortunate Americans are to live in a democratic country. The broad outline of the story is about the rounding up of Lithuania citizens during WWII to be sent to work camps in Siberia under the control of the Russian NKVD, the precursor of today’s Russian SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service) and GRU (General Staff of the Armed Forces). At the beginning of WWII, Stalin orders the taking of the Baltic States into the U.S.S.R. by dismantling the in-place governments of the acquired countries. Any political opposition is to be arrested and deported to labor camps designed to serve the Russian economy.

Sepety’s novel is the story of one group of Lithuanians that are rounded up, sent to Siberia, and later moved to an even more hostile camp inside the Arctic Circle.

The essence of the story is based on a young girl’s notes and drawings about her experience. The neglect and brutal treatment of Lithuanian citizens by Russia during WWII is graphically depicted in “Between Shades of Gray”. The title alludes to the few Russian guards that surreptitiously aid the work camp prisoners. It is only gray because the help is often in return for cooperation or favor from the un-free.

IN THE ROOM

How close is the world to its next world war? The character of today’s leaders seems as threatening as Stalin and as unpredictable as Churchill.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Stalin Affair (The Impossible Alliance That Won the War)

By: Giles Milton

Narrated By: Giles Milton

Giles Milton (Author, British writer and historian.)

Giles Milton offers a fascinating and well written account of the dynamics of the relationship between Churchill and Stalin with a brief analysis of Franklin Roosevelt that shows a difference of opinion about Stalin. There are some surprises in Milton’s history of the beginning and ending of WWII and the role of Joseph Stalin.

As is well known, Stalin and Hitler made a pact at the beginning of the war that made them allies with a plan to divide Europe between their two countries.

The pact falls apart when Hitler chooses to invade Russia on June 22, 1941. Germany made rapid progress and was nearing Moscow when winter struck, and Germany’s wheels of war were stuck in the mud. Stalin was psychologically paralyzed by Germany’s decision to turn against Russia. He hid in his dacha, his second home in the Russian countryside. A delegation of Russians went to the Stalin’s dacha and pleaded with him to direct the defense of Russia against Germany’s onslaught. Stalin is surprised that the delegation wanted him to return to the leadership of Russia in Milton’s telling of the story. One presumes that reluctance is because of Stalin’s mistake in believing Hitler could be a reliable ally in their mutual desire to expand their territories.

Milton’s history has a particular interest to me because of a planned personal visit to the Baltics next month.

In reading a book about the Baltics during WWII, there seems some confusion among the Baltic countries because their sovereignty is being usurped by Russia while the instigator of WWII is Germany. The guide on the trip suggests we read “between shades of gray”, a book written by Rusa Sepetys, a Lithuanian born American writer. Sepetys story is of Lithuania intellectuals being arrested by Stalin’s troops and carted off to Siberia. Brief mention of the Germans is mentioned but implies the Germans were not the enemy but an opposing force of the Russian attack on the Baltics. Having visited Finland last year, it is interesting to find the Finns allied themselves to Germany during WWII because of their fear of Russia’s aggression. Now, having read Sepetys novel of Russian aggression in early 1941, one begins to understand the complexity of which side of the war the Baltics chose to be on.

Ruta Sepetys (Lithuanian born American writer.)

It tells the story of Russia’s invasion of the Baltics soon after Hitler’s decision to attack Russia.

WWII in the Baltics is not Milton’s history, but Sepetys offers a footnote on its consequence in the Baltics.

Milton makes one feel they are in the room when decisions are made about the progress and ending of WWII. It is a fascinating story. Stalin is a villain in sheep’s clothing. His lust for power is unquenchable. Winston Chruchill is shown to be more aware of Stalin’s intent than Franklin Roosevelt. At Yalta, where the peace plan is agreed to and signed, Milton explains Roosevelt is feeble. The Yalta conference took place in February 1945. Roosevelt dies in April, two months later. Stalin’s ambition is the expansion of the U.S.S.R. and anything that gets in the way of that ambition is an obstacle to be overcome or removed.

Milton’s access to historical documents, reveals the many important roles of government leaders during WWII and after.

Of course, the most obviously impactful leaders are Churchill and Stalin, but the author notes the roles of lesser-known participants like Averell Harriman, Kathy Harriman, and Vyacheslav Molotov. There is also the role of Lavrentiy Beria, Stalin’s head of the NKVD (the Soviet secret police).

W. Averell Harriman (1891-1986, American politician, businessman, and diplomat.)

Averell Harriman, as the son of a wealthy railroad baron, becomes the founder of Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., an investment company. He became one of the richest men in America.

Harriman is asked by Roosevelt to become the America’s diplomatic contact with Great Britain to manage the Lend-Lease Program before America enters the war. As a personal envoy, he strengthens the alliance between Britain and America. Later he becomes Ambassador to the Soviet Union after Hitler’s betrayal of Stalin. Milton touches on the married Harriman’s attraction to women and his extramarital affairs. However, Harriman was revered by Churchill, and later Stalin, for the aid he coordinated for both countries during the war.

Kathleen Harriman (1917-2011, died at age 93.)

A lesser-known role is of Harriman’s daughter, Kathy Harriman. In the first years of contact between her father and Stalin, Ms. Harriman smooths America’s relationship with the Russian administration.

Ms. Harriman leaned to speak Russian and aided her father in his diplomatic contact with Soviet officials. She became a correspondent for the International News Service and Newsweek during her time in Russia. In 1944, Ms. Harriman exposes the mass murder of 22,000 Polish officers by the NKVD, at the order of Stalin. She plays a role in the Yalta Conference in assisting the American delegation with logistics and management.

Milton makes a listener feel like they are in the room at a dinner table with Stalin and Churchill when they exchange harsh words about the creation of a western front to aid the Russian army in the fight with German soldiers.

Stalin demeans the British army for their early failures in the war when they were outnumbered and outgunned by the Germans. Churchill is deeply offended by the disparagement and is on the verge of canceling a dinner with Stalin before leaving Russia. His anger is quelled by Harriman. Churchill changes his tone with the Russian leader and mends their relationship over cigars and alcohol. However, there is little doubt about their continued acrimony and Churchill’s unshaken belief in Stalin’s intent to expand his empire.

Milton offers the same “in the room” understanding of what happens at the Yalta Conference.

Germany is divided into four occupation zones which ended up being East and West Germany. The groundwork for the United Nations is formed with the aid of promoting international cooperation and prevention of future conflicts. A zone of influence is created between Eastern European Countries which were added to the U.S.S.R., to expand a buffer zone between Russia and the Western Powers. This iron curtain results in the cold war. The table is set at Yalta for the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi and Japanese leaders and for future reparations to rebuild Europe.

“The Stalin Affair” is an excellent reminder of WWII that makes one think about what is happening today with Russia in Ukraine and Israel in Gaza. How close is the world to its next world war? The character of today’s leaders seems as threatening as Stalin and as unpredictable as Churchill.

PUTIN & UKRAINE

Without checks and balances, autocratic beliefs inevitably lead to conflict and mutually assured destruction, Donald Trump notwithstanding.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

From Cold War to Hot Peace (An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia)

By: Michael McFaul

Narrated By: L. J. Ganser

Michael McFaul (Author, American academic and diplomat, ambassador to Russia 2012-2014, former Professor of International Studies at Stanford.)

Not since George Kennan’s brief time as Ambassador to Russia in 1952 has an American ambassador been denied access to Russia. Michael McFaul became the second in 2016. McFaul joins the pre- and post-Obama election to become Obama’s ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2o14. McFaul writes this book to explain his experience in the Obama administration, his understanding of Russia, and his tenure as Ambassador to Russia.

Interestingly, Condoleezza Rice recommends McFaul should join Obama because she was sure he, rather than McCain, would become the next President of the United States.

McFaul follows Rice’s recommendation and joins Obama’s campaign. Mcfaul’s grasp of Russian foreign affairs is insightful and relevant based on his personal experience. McFaul lived in Russia for a period of time when Gorbachev and Yeltsin attempted to liberalize Russia’s autocratic government. McFaul’s time living in Russia, his understanding of Russian language, and his study of Russian history at Stanford make his opinion in “From Cold War to Hot Peace” important.

Gorbachev’ biography shows he experienced the autocratic rule of Stalin’s U.S.S.R. as a young boy and found the courage to open the door to citizen’ freedom.

Mikhail Gorbachev was 22 when Stalin died. His ideal was to maintain the U.S.S.R. but with a system of government that rejected totalitarianism while freeing its citizens to improve their way of life. However, the shock of newfound freedom appeared an economic change too difficult and unfairly remunerative for the U.S.S.R. to survive as one hegemon.

A fundamental ingredient of independence is freedom.

When countries controlled by the U.S.S.R. were offered freedom, they looked to forms of democracy rather than autocracy. Gorbachev’s inability to accelerate economic growth to improve the lives of his country’s citizens doomed his goal to create a freer society within the U.S.S.R. Compounding his failure, Boris Yeltsin usurps Gorbachev’s power by arguing he has a better way of accelerating Russia’s economy to keep the U.S.S.R. together.

Boris Yeltsin talked the talk of democratic government but because of his inability to coopt the underlying authoritarian habits of former KGB operatives, he lost control of the government.

Yeltsin’s rise undermined the influence of Gorbachev, encouraged the departure of U.S.S.R.’ member countries, and gave an opening to Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer. The KGB changed to the FSB in 1991 (along with Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service) to become the right and left hand of Putin’s power and influence in the new Russia.

Fifteen countries leave the U.S.S.R. in 1991.

Estonia: August 20, 1991
Latvia: August 21, 1991
Lithuania: March 11, 1990
Armenia: September 21, 1991
Azerbaijan: October 18, 1991
Belarus: August 25, 1991
Georgia: April 9, 1991
Kazakhstan: December 16, 1991
Kyrgyzstan: August 31, 1991
Moldova: August 27, 1991
Russia: December 12, 1991
Tajikistan: September 9, 1991
Turkmenistan: October 27, 1991
Ukraine: August 24, 1991
Uzbekistan: September 1, 1991

Gorbachev effectively ended the cold war, but McFaul argues the cold war turned into a “…Hot Peace”. Gorbachev was the last leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. His effort to democratize Russia fails even though he fully champions Valdimir Putin to become president of Russia in 2000.

Putin took control of Russia as Prime Minister under Yeltsin in 1999. He later effectively became President of Russia for life.

McFall explains Obama became President of the United States in 2o09. Obama revised America’s relationship with Russia with what became known as the U.S./Russia “Reset” policy.

Obama’s “Reset” policy had some early positive effects. The relationship between America and Russia arguably improved despite their significant political differences. When they disagreed, they agreed to disagree. There were halting steps toward nuclear bomb limitation and greater cooperation on America’s actions in Afghanistan when the Taliban had shown support for Osama bin Laden after 9/11.

Putin rose to the presidency in 2011 and has remained effectively in control of Russia since 1999. Though not argued by McFaul, Putin’s intimate understanding of Russia’s secret service has given him the power to exercise dictatorial control over Russia. The history of U.S.S.R. since the 1917 revolution has been maintained by a secret service used to jail, torture, and murder any opposition to leadership of Russia. Today, that autocratic leader is Putin. There seems little reason to believe kleptocratic control of a massive secret service apparatus will be overcome without revolution. Every Russian knows of the threat the secret service has to any opposition to Putin who controls and has an intimate relationship and understanding of the organizational capabilities of the former KGB.

Gorbachev’s legacy is hope for a better form of government in Russia. Change is possible just as Gorbachev’s history as the secretary of the Communist Party from 1985 to 1991 proved.

One is inclined to believe change will come to Russia from a disaffected communist party leader who rises in the party and taps discontented Russians looking for change. If all one’s life is lived and raised in Russia, a Russian born change-agent like Gorbachev may, once again, be born

As one completes McFaul’s book, the threat of masculine blindness in world leaders is made clear. Leadership entails a power that corrupts leaders who think they know what is best for their citizens. Autocracies concentrate that power in singular human beings. Without checks and balances, autocratic beliefs inevitably lead to conflict and mutually assured destruction, Donald Trump notwithstanding.

SO MANY SORROWS

What Kalifa shows is how alone every human being is in a country led by leaders who care only about their power.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Death is Hard Work

By: Khaled Khalifa, Leri Price-translator

Narrated By: Neil Shah

Khaled Khalifa (1964-2023, Syrian author, screenwriter, and poet, died at age 59.)

Conscience is an inner sense of voice that guides a person to understand the difference between right and wrong. The author is characterized by western publications as a critic of Baath party rule in Syria. Khaled Khalifa chose to remain in Syria despite the horrendous rule of Syria’s dictator, Bashar al-Assad. (Khalifa died of a heart attack at age 59 in 2023.)

Khalifa’s “Death is Hard Work”, published in 2016, seems a conscience driven criticism of Bashar’s rule during Syria’s 2011 civil war.

Though Khalifa is a Muslim, his novel appears to object to Assad’s rule during the war. Of course, there are five sects of the Muslim church in Syria, but al-Assad’s Alawites are only 10% of the population versus 74% Sunni Islam, of which the author is said to belong.

This is not to suggest Khalifa is anti-Assad because of religion but that Khalifa is noting in his book the muti-religious fabric of Syria. The novel is about the cruelty and lawlessness in Syria during the 2011 Civil War which is, at best, a frozen conflict in 2024. The country remains divided despite Assad’s continued rule and growing normalization of his regime among regional powers.

“Death is Hard Work” reflects on the many wars being waged today. The conflict in Gaza, the war in Ukraine, tribal conflicts in Sudan, the Sahel, Ethiopia, and Nigeria create societal tragedies that make America’s problems pale in comparison.

The overarching story is the main characters commitment to his father to bury him in his family village somewhere near Aleppo.

Khalifa explains some of the horrific consequences of the Syrian civil war in “Death is Hard Work”. The Civil War is raging in Damascus where the family patriarch dies from old age. There are checkpoints throughout the country that have to be crossed. Each checkpoint is a test of two brothers’ and a sister’s resolve to fulfill their father’s last wish.

The backstory is about a father who marries and has been a constant critic of Assad-rule. He recalls his life in the 1960s as much better. That is odd considering history shows the four Presidents during that period fostered political instability, revolt, and global tension. The point made by the author is memories often block out the truth of our past.

Assad’s murder of women and children is a reminder of today’s conflicts in Ukraine, Russia, Israel, several African nations, and Gaza. Leaders in these countries are fomenting war over land and ideas that only increase the suffering of their people.

The past is always present. Khalifa reflects on what he sees as Syria’s present. He writes of a Syrian woman raped to death by four men. He explains a story of a husband who sends his children to another country while he stays in Syria to plan the murder of the four rapists whom he knows. Khalifa writes of the poverty and hunger of Syria’s civil war. Citizens searching garbage cans and eating flowers and grass to stay alive. It makes no difference whether one is a college professor or bum, all were hungry. One is reminded of the chemical attack in Syria and the many bodies on the ground that President Obama called a red line for America when it was not.

The two brothers and sister risk their lives at each check point in their treacherous journey to bury their father in his ancestral graveyard.

At each check point, they explain the reasons for carrying a dead body cross country while it begins to smell. “You have to do something if you don’t want to die” becomes the mantra of Bolbol, i.e. the youngest son who is trying to fulfill his father’s last wish. Flash backs remind listeners of what happens to one’s beliefs about right and wrong when powerlessness against tyrannical leaders is the measure of life. The older brother, Hussein, is influenced by belief in power and is often in conflict with his younger brother as they take their father’s body to his home village.

The two brothers and a sister have lived sorrowful lives because of their country’s leadership. What Kalifa shows is how alone every human being is in a country led by leaders who care only about their power. Until or unless leaders in Syria, Ukraine, Russia, Israel, and Gaza come to understand the harm they are doing to their societies, only sorrow remains for their people.

RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCE

Is belief in God worth it? Cook’s history of Muslimism and knowledge of Christianity makes one wonder.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

“A History of the Muslim World From its origins to the Dawn of Modernity”

By: Michael Cook

Narrated By: Ric Jerrom

Michael A. Cook (British historian, scholar of Islamic History)

Professor Cook overwhelms one with a voluminous examination of the Muslim World. His history really begins before the birth of the Arab prophet, Muhammad (570-632). However, it is after Muhammed’s revelations and his departure from Mecca in 610 CE, when he and his followers settle in Medina (622) that a more documented history is revealed. Arabs are identified as a nomadic tribe who occupied the Arabian Peninsula, Syrian Desert, North, and Lower Mesopotamia in the mid-9th century BCE. However, notable territorial regions first appeared in the 14th century BCE with the Assyrian and Neo-Assyrian Empires. Cook suggests it is in the 7th century CE that Islam became a force in the Middle East. After the Prophet Muhammad’s death in 1632, the Rashidun Caliphate established itself (632-661 CE).

The Rashidun Caliphate boundaries.

The messenger of Allah is Muhammed. Muhammed was an Arab. Born in 540 CE in Mecca, Arabia (now Saudi Arabia), Muhammed is considered by Muslim’s the last messenger of Allah. Though Muhammed could neither read nor write, his counsel with scribes resulted in the equivalent of the Christian Bible, called the Quran, which is alleged to reflect the word of the Supreme creator of life, the world, and the hereafter. This is different than the scribes of the Christian Holy Bible. However, the Holy Bible’ and Quran’ texts offer the same confusion about their meaning because these holy books have first, second, third, and later-hand writings of scribes.

(REVIEWER’S NOTE: Scribes recreated fragmentary writings and legends of long-dead contemporaries of Christ in the case of the Holy Bible, just as the thoughts of the “last messenger of Allah” were recorded by scribes. Modern science experiments explain human minds do not precisely record or recall the past. The human mind recreates the past and fills any gaps that may arise to complete the mind’s imprecise memory. That is why scribes of biblical or unbiblical history are interpretations of facts of the past, and not necessarily accurate facts of the past.)

With the conclusion of the First World War, the Ottoman Empire was dissolved, and modern Arab nation-states were formed.

With the Ottoman Empire’s dissolution, Turkey, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Montenegro, and Macedonia were formed. Three Arab nation-states came out of the Ottoman Empire’ dissolution. They were Syria, Iraq, and Transjordan (now Jordan).

Interestingly, modern states with the highest number of Arab speaking residents are Egypt, Sudan, Algeria, Iraq, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. Only Egypt and Sudan have more than 10% of their population who use Arabic as their primary language. The point of this realization is that Professor Cook is writing a history of the Muslim religion, not Arab culture.

However, there seems little doubt that the 6 major Arab tribes of earlier centuries were the vessels of change for Muslim’ belief and practice. Arab tribes existed as far back as 6000 BCE. By 1200 BCE, they had established settlements and camps that formed into Kingdoms.

Arab tribal land extended from the Levant to Mesopotamia and Arabia.

Cook infers Arabs spread the Muslim religion to northern Africa and throughout the Asian continent while crossing the Mediterranean to influence, but not convert, southern Spain. Cook illustrates how Muslim’ belief shaped human history and culture. An estimated 55% of the world population identifies itself as Christian, or Muslim. Hinduism constitutes 15%, Buddhism 7%, with the remaining religions in lower single digits.

**What Cook shows is how Muslim belief (24% of the world population) impacted the world.**

Cook begins to explain the split between Sunni and Shia religious belief. In the modern world, only Iran, Bahrain, Yemen, and Iraq have Shia-majority populations with a significant Shia community in Lebanon and Afghanistan. Sunni religious belief is practiced by a majority population in nearly 20 countries with a mixture in Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Eritrea, Syria, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan.

A surprising observation by Cook is the impact of a language change in the Middle East. Persian (aka Farsi) became a bridge connecting the diverse communities and histories of the Middle East. This change largely took place between the 9th and 11th centuries. It significantly impacted Muslim cultural beliefs and Iranian culture in general.

Cook implies the colloquialization of translations by Farsi (the language of Persia) of Arab Caliphate’ triumphs and failures molded beliefs of Middle Eastern nation-states. Countries like Iran either adopted or rejected Farsi’ stories of accomplishments and failures by Arab Caliphates. Some failure is associated with moral turpitude, a falling away from Qur’anic teaching, translated into Farsi language.

Cook’s next step in the history of Islam is to reveal the impact of Turkey and the Mongol empire’s spread of the Muslim religion. There is a confluence of tribal association and acceptance of the Islamic religion in the military campaigns of Genghis Kahn (1162-1227) followers, some of which were Turkish.

(Genghis Khan’s sons establish four kingdoms in the Middle East that lasted until 1368.)

Though none of the kingdoms practiced a particular religion, each influenced the course of religious acceptance. The environment they created allowed Christian religion to spread from Russian territory, while Turkish influence leaned toward Islam. Cook explains how young rebel leaders gained followers by successfully defeating and pillaging villages that had poor defenses. With each successful raid, more young people would join the raiders. This incremental growth led to the spread of Christian and Islamic religious influence, depending on the religious leaning of raiding parties.

Cook clearly illustrates how Arab culture lies at the heart of Islamic religion despite its nomadic existence. From the first madrasas (Islamic schools) in the Abbasid Caliphate in the 9th century, the teachings of the last messenger of Allah began with Arabs. Cook explains the religion is unlikely to have flourished without other cultures adoption. Without Persian, Turk, Uzbek, and Mongol societies adoption, the spread of Islam would have been minimized. Muslim belief evolved in a cauldron of conflict with Christianity, Judaism, and other indigenous religions but prevailed as a religion with two faces, i.e., the Suni and Shia Divide.

Like the schism between Catholics and Protestants, Sunni and Shia believe in one God but differ in ways that have roiled the world. In the case of Catholics and Protestants, there is the French wars of 1562-1598, the European thirty years war of 1618-1648, and the Troubles in Ireland in 1968-1998. In the case of Sunni and Shia, there was the battle of Karbala in 680 CE, the Safavid-Ottoman wars in the 16th-17th centuries, the Lebanese Civil War of 1975-1990, the Iraq War of 2003-2011, and the Syrian Civil War that began in 2011 and continues through today.

The forgoing were only human deaths within the two major religions of the world, while neglecting the atrocities incurred between Christianity and Islam. There were the Crusades between the 11th and 13th centuries, the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, The Siege of Vienna in 1683, and the Lebanese Civil War between 1975-1990.

Later chapters of Cook’s history reveal the conflicts between the Islamic religion and other major religions in the Middle East, besides Christianity. Many leaders are identified for historians who will be interested in knowing more, but the names become a blur to a dilatant of history.

Is belief in God worth it? Cook’s history of Muslimism and knowledge of Christianity makes one wonder.

27 BOOKS

Like the number 47 in “Guardians of the Galaxy”, the 27 books of the New Testament offer no answer to the meaning of life.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

“The History of the Bible” (The Great Book Lectures)

By: Bart D. Ehrman

Narrated by: Bart D. Ehrman Lectures

Bart Denton Ehrman (American New Testament Scholar, Wheaton College BA, Princeton Theological Seminary received a Master of Divinity and PhD.)

Bart D. Ehrman’s lectures are a revelation to one who knows little about either the Bible or the New Testament. As a scholar, Ehrman views the New Testament as history, not a religious covenant. The New Testament, as differentiated from the Holy Bible (a covenant with Israel), is a later covenant with Jesus that extends religion to all humankind.

**Ehrman’s lectures are not about religious belief but about the history of the New Testament.**

Removing the ideas of religious belief from his lectures will undoubtedly offend many who believe in God’s and/or Jesus’s divinity. What Ehrman does is explain how the New Testament is a flawed recollection of historical figures. The flaws come from scribes who interpret three contemporaries of Jesus–Matthew’s, John’s, and Peter’s fragmentary writings of Jesus’ ministry and teachings.

The 27 books of the New Testament are written by scribes of later centuries that are interpretations of Matthew’s, John’s, and Peter’s interpretations of Jesus’s beliefs and history on earth.

Because scribes and contemporaries’ recollection of Jesus are human, truth is in the eye and limitations of its beholders. The inference from Ehrman’s lectures is that truth is distorted by interpretations of interpretations.

Ehrman systematically reveals how the story of Jesus’s life and beliefs change over the centuries.

He gives listeners a better understanding of the complexity and false interpretations of religion that accompany the many atrocities committed by believers who foolishly murder fellow human beings. These great historical conflicts are based on interpreters’ interpretations of interpretations.

God may or may not exist, but human beings insist on their beliefs to the detriment of humanity.

History unreservedly shows–believing in religion, without concern for society leads to discrimination, mayhem, and murder. That is as clear today in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict as in the history of the Jewish holocaust and pogroms of the past.

Like the number 47 in “Guardians of the Galaxy”, the 27 books of the New Testament offer no answer to the meaning of life.

OCCUPATION

“Apeirogon” is a little too repetitive for this reviewer, but it is cleverly written and shows why political and military occupation is a fool’s leadership style.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

“Apeirogon” (A Novel)

By: Colum McCann

Narrated by: Colum McCann

Colum McCann (Author, Irish writer living in New York.)

At first the idea of an Irish author writing a book about Israel seems incongruous. After the first few paragraphs, one realizes Colum McCann grasps a truth about religious conflict that is far better than most because of Ireland’s “Troubles” between the 1960s and 1990s.

“Apeirogon” is timely novel in regard to Israel’s response to the October 7 Hamas attack in Gaza. A little history helps one understand the complexity and terrible consequence of the slaughter of innocents.

An estimated 30,228 people have been killed in Gaza, 12,000 of which are thought to be Hamas combatants.

Gaza dates back to Egyptian times, populated by Canaanites who share an ancestral connection to Israelites. Gaza later became part of the Assyrian Empire in 730 BC. Assyrians intermixed with Canaanites, Israelites, Philistines and undoubtedly Palestinians. History shows historical connection between ancient Assyrians and Palestinians just as there were with Israelites. However, Israelites were forcibly relocated to Assyria from the Kingdom of Israel. Because the Israelites were descendants of the Canaanites, they predated Palestinian settlement in Gaza. Ethnic precedent and the want of land area is a part of what complicates the idea of a separate Palestinian state. Where is a homeland for a Palestinian state going to come from?

McCann chose a perfect title for his novel. An apeirogon is a geometric shape that has an infinite number of sides; just like the many sides of Israeli/Palestinian arguments for a homeland. Column McCann cleverly explores these arguments in his novel. He creates a series of Israeli/Palestinian incidents that show how each ethnic culture believes and acts in their perceived self-interests. Every chapter is titled as a series of numbers that begin with the number 1, jumps from 500 to the number 1001; then jumps back to 500 and descends to number 1 to end his story. Revelation comes in 1001. Occupation is an evil that cannot stand.

America’s civil war carries some parallels to what is happening in Israel and Gaza.

What is revelatory about McCann’s novel is its similarities to America’s civil war that ended the lives of too many Americans. Today’s conflict in Gaza is instigated by Hamas just as the Civil War was instigated by southern slave holders. America eventually forgave southern slave holders, but Black Americans continue to suffer from institutional racism. Can a one state solution as demanded by Israel’s conservatives serve Palestinians any better than white America has served Black Americans? America’s civil war ended in 1865-1866, some 158 years later, Black Americans are still discriminated against. Can Palestinians wait more than 158 years to have equal rights in an Israeli nation?

McCann’s novel repeats, too many times, the unfairness of Israel’s occupation of Gaza. Hamas has its rebellious leaders like America had John Brown who killed one Marine, wounded another, and killed six civilians. Neither Brown nor the Hamas leaders can justify their murders though both argue with righteous conviction. The United States could have split between abolitionist and non-abolitionist states, or they could move toward reconciliation. Obviously, the U.S. government prevailed with reconciliation. It seems imperative for Israeli and Palestinian leaders to take the same road as Abraham Lincoln. Hamas is a splinter group like that led by America’s John Brown. Their objective is as horribly misguided as Brown’s. Hamas’s hostage taking and murder of Jewish settlers is as reprehensible as Brown’s murders of a Marine and six civilians.

As difficult as it may be, a two-state solution seems unlikely. What American history suggests is as difficult as America has found reconciliation to be for white America’s murder and unjust treatment of Black Americans. That reconciliation remains a work in progress. However, only union offers a way toward peace. America is not there yet but it is making progress.

Two political factions, bound by both religion and ethnicity, must learn to live with each other for peace to be achieved.

There is no other land for Palestinians. Israel may have the older of the two cultures, and both Israelites and Palestinians have a much longer history of religious and ethnic difference than America. America is founded on religious freedom and equality, though not perfect in either principle. In contrast, religion is a primary determinant in Palestinian and Israeli cultures while equality seems a less prominent concern. Peace will not come without hardship, but a beginning is dependent on Israel’s abandonment of occupation. It will be one country’s leaders’ imperative to provide equal opportunity for all its citizens. The struggle will be long as is shown by America’s history but what realistic alternative is there for the Israeli and Palestinian people? What neighboring country is likely to give up their land to create a two state solution?

“Apeirogon” is a little too repetitive for this reviewer, but it is cleverly written and shows why political and military occupation is a fool’s leadership style. Israel, like white America, needs to do better in reconciling ethnic differences.

NO WINNERS, ONLY LOSERS

The story of la Drang shows how all wars are crimes against humanity. There are no winners, only losers and grief.

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

We Were Soldiers Once…and Young (la Drang-The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam)

By: Harold G. Moore, Joseph L. Galloway

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

Today, on Veterans’ Day, after starting and stopping this book several years ago, it is finally completed and being reviewed. This is a harsh story for soldiers enlisted or drafted during Vietnam. It is harder for families that lost their sons (over 58,000) and daughters (8 women) in the war.

Moore, a graduate of West Point, was the lieutenant colonel in command of the 1st Battalion at la Drang in what is considered by some as “The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam”.

Joseph Galloway, the co-author, was a civilian journalist and correspondent that accompanied the Battalion at la Drang.

Harold Moore and Joseph Galloway recount the battle of the 7th Calvary Regiment at the Battle of la Drang in 1965. Moore was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for valor and Galloway was the only civilian ever awarded a Bronze Star for combat valor for carrying a wounded soldier back to safety during the la Drang battle in Vietnam.

Three things stand out to this reviewer of Moore’s and Galloway’s explanation of America’s war in Vietnam. One is the fellowship of soldiers that comes from a common threat to their lives. Two is Moore’s observation that there were not enough medics in Vietnam in 1965, and three, the mishandling of family notification of lost soldiers in the early years of the war. Two and three were presumably corrected in later years.

In 1966, as a former enlisted medic who asked to go to Vietnam and was thankfully discouraged, the idea that there were not enough medics is appalling. Moore and Galloway tell of families in 1965 being notified of the death of those who died in la Drang by taxi drivers who deliver a letter explaining their sons or daughters were killed in Vietnam. There was no additional or personal service given to families notified of their son’s or daughter’s deaths until later in the war.

The story of la Drang shows how all wars are crimes against humanity.

Use of napalm in Vietnam.

There are many inferences one may draw from “We Were Soldiers Once…” but Moore and Galloway write about one battle in the early years of Vietnam’s escalation that foretells that war’s futility. What about today’s battles in Ukraine and Palestine. What do those early battles foretell?

It is disturbing to look back on what happened in the early years of America’s Vietnam war. There are too many mistakes and battle tragedies to be clearly understood. Yesterday it was Vietnam. Today it is the Ukraine-Russian and Palestine-Israel wars. At their ends, one doubts there will be winners but is assured there will be losers.

LESSONS OF HISTORY

The question of whether the free world should support Ukraine in every way possible can be answered. The answer is yes because Putin like Hitler will not stop.

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

Blog: awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

A History of France

By: John Julius Norwich

Narrated by: John Julius Norwich

John Julius Norwich (Author, English historian, travel writer, television personality, Royal Navy veteran with degrees in French and Russian from Oxford.)

John Norwich’s “A History of France” is an intimidating summary of a country that makes one understand how young and inexperienced America is in the history of nations.

France is recognized as a nation in 987 with its first King, Hugh Capet, born in 939-died in 996 at the age of 56 or 57. (King of the Franks from 987-996.)

The actual title King of France is not used until the crowning of Phillip II in 1190 (a descendant of Capet) who died in 1223 at the age of 57. Norwich’s “…History…” recounts the many Kings of France since Phillip II.

The longest serving King is Louis XIV (the Sun King) who ruled from 1643 to 1715 (a total of 72 years).

King Louis XIV moved the center of French government to the Palace of Versailles in 1682. He is the third of five Bourbon Kings of France. King Louis XIV is noted to have expanded France’s borders while centralizing power in France. Norwich notes Louis XIV’s wife, Maria Theresa of Austria, plays a significant role in France’s history. Theresa’s three major accomplishments are to create education for serfs, consolidate the French government’s financial system, and create a unified judicial code that became a foundation for Central European Laws.

The last Bourbon King of France is Louis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette, who are deposed and beheaded after the 1789 revolution.

The brutality of the revolution is exemplified by factions called Royalists, Jacobins, and Montagnards. The Royalists supported monarchy and the Catholic Church. The Jacobins founded the 1789 Nation Constituent Assembly that wished to moderate authoritarianism, offer equal rights to French citizens with government intervention to insure social change. The Montagnards campaigned for the needs of the working and poorer classes of French society.

The 1789 revolution eventually led to the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte who through ascension and a series of military conquests reestablishes a French monarchy under his rule.

Charles-Louis Napoleon Bonaparte becomes the first president of France which is recognized as a Republic. However, though France is a Republic between 1848 and 1852, Charles reestablishes the monarchy in 1852 until he is deposed in absentia in 1870.

A new faction is formed called the Bonapartists. This faction roiled France throughout the 19th and into the early 20th century.

As the nephew of Napoleon, King Charles oversaw the modernization of the French economy. However, reestablishing the monarchy and his failure in the Franco/Prussian war led to a famine that permanently turned the French against monarchal rule.

Seven French revolutions finally ends France’s monarchy. However, each revolution precipitated chaos, and declarations of war from other monarchies. The final death of French monarchy did not occur until liberation after WWII.

Norwich explains there were actually seven revolutions before France becomes a permanent republic.

The first is the 1789 revolution which is most widely known by Americans. The irony of that revolution’s importance is France’s considerable support of America’s revolution in 1776. The newly established French government did not have a leadership group that could create a republic that could manage the monumental inequities of its long-established French culture. The repression of the poor created by centuries of royal leadership entailed too much animosity to avoid the Reign of Terror that caused the execution of thousands of French citizens. As many as 40,000 people were said to have been killed. It would take six more revolutions to create the lasting Republic of France.

The French Revolution (1789-1799)
The Napoleonic Era (1799-1815)
The July Revolution (1830), a 3 day uprising that overthrew King Charles X because he tried to restore absolutism and censor the press.
The February Revolution (1848), based triggered by economic hardship, discontent, and social unrest.
The Second Empire (1852-1870), a coup against Napoleon III despite the improvements made to France, he poorly manages and loses the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.
The Third Republic (1870-1940) did establish a parliamentary democracy but is tarnished by antisemitism, and WWI that killed millions of French soldiers.
The Vichy Regime that collaborated with Nazi Germany led to the 7th and final revolution against monarchy and for a Republic.

The collaboration of France’s Vichy Regime and Chamberlain’s appeasement agreement with Hitler’s Germany are lessons for today’s handling of Russia and the invasion of Ukraine.

The world did not fully respond to Hitler with force when Germany invaded Poland. Hitler, like Stalin and Putin, presumed the world would not respond to Germany’s taking of a sovereign country.

Whether Putin directs the murder of any opposition to his rule is not a question that can be answered but the imprisonment of Navalny and the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin is reminiscent of Hitler’s lies to the world.

The question of whether the free world should support Ukraine in every way possible can be answered. The answer is yes because Putin like Hitler will not stop.

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